Baker: VA Lacks a High-Level View of Its IT Architecture

The Veterans Affairs Department lacks a fully documented, detailed view of its information technology architecture and does not consider such a high-level view critical to developing an IT strategy, said Roger Baker, VA chief information officer. Baker testified during a May 11 hearing of the House Veterans Affairs' subcommittee on oversight and investigations.

"On architecture, I would love to get there. I believe it's a matter of prioritization and just the way I look at an IT organization," he added.   

Providing concrete numbers on IT assets is also a challenge at VA. According to Baker, VA has 62 data centers and approximately 37,000 servers, but some of those could be virtual instances running on a single physical server. When asked how many physical servers fell under VA's purview Baker said, "Today I do not have that answer. Yesterday, when I prepared my testimony I thought I had that answer for you."